Bowling for dollars

Well the regular season of football is over, with the exception of the Army-Navy game. The final four has been chosen and the bowl matchups have been made. And for the first time since 1960, the New Mexico State Aggies will be playing in a bowl game.

The most anticipated draw for the college football playoff was for the number four position. Most everyone figured it would be Clemson one, Oklahoma two, Georgia three.

But who was going to be the fourth team.

If Wisconsin would have beaten Ohio State they would have taken over the fourth spot but they lost that game. Some prognosticators thought the committee would pick Ohio State since they won the Big 10 championship game.

But the committee put a lot of weight on a blowout loss the Buckeyes endured at Iowa on Nov. 4. Lose by a touchdown or less and they would have had a date with Clemson. But the final score was Iowa 55 OSU 24.

By virtue of the OSU victory over Wisconsin, the Alabama Crimson Tide is awarded the fourth spot without having to play a game to get there. Don’t ever think that Alabama and Nick Saban don’t have a lot of power because they do.

So what if there was an eight-team playoff instead of four? Honestly, eight teams would have made more sense that just eliminating one or two teams.

So how would that have worked and who would the other four teams be? Okay, we already saw that Ohio State was five and Wisconsin was six.

Number seven should have been USC and number eight should have been Central Florida the only unbeaten team in the top tier of college football. These are my picks so hear me out and don’t argue with me.

How would it play out? The top four teams have home field advantage and would play two weeks after the season ended: 1 versus 8, 2 versus 7, 3 versus 6, and 4 versus 5.

The losers would matchup in a bowl game a couple of weeks after that and the winners would be playing in bowl games on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl in the final four.

I don’t think this would be a problem to pull off. Extra practice time, two more guaranteed games with revenues and TV should be a benefit for the schools and conferences.

And maybe some of the top coaches wouldn’t bolt for the new school that is willing to drop millions into you their wallet.

Some might think that the top two or four teams would come out on top so why add four teams? Nothing is guaranteed. Upsets do happen. On any given day and a good upset is always exciting.

Okay so I know this scenario won’t happen this year or most likely any time soon. But we can always dream can’t we?

So the bowl matchups were announced and there could be some exciting games to watch. The Pac 12 and Big 10 are playing each other in four of those games.

Arizona and Purdue will square off in the Foster Farms Bowl; Michigan State and Washington State head to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl; USC and Ohio State will battle in the Cotton Bowl and Penn State and the University of Washington will butt heads in the Fiesta Bowl.

One other possible can’t miss game is Central Florida and Auburn playing in the Peach Bowl. UCF is undefeated and Auburn was a shoo-in to play in the final four according to several experts on the subject.

And they would have, but Georgia arrived with revenge on their minds and the Tigers didn’t have a good enough answer for them this time around. Auburn remains the only team to have beaten Alabama this season.

For this bowl season I have a few wishes since it is the Christmas season.

I hope that all of the football players planning to go pro, suit up and give it everything they have in their last bowl game. Show the NFL scouts that you are a “can’t miss” draft pick.

You have a lot of fans that want to see you play one more game and they want your school to win the bowl game.

And coaches, please motivate your team. There is nothing worse than coming out flat in a bowl game.

The fans of the school you represent have invested a lot of money for plane tickets, hotel rooms, meals and tickets to the football game. They want their team to win. It is kind of a big deal for them so reward them with a great effort.

Don’t treat it like just another game or bowling for dollars. Treat it like it’s the most important game played that day, because to the fans of your team it is.